Golden Queen and Her Flagship

"Ah—"

Helene screamed on instinct, trying to wake her crew, who were still asleep at dawn. Flames erupted across her body as she prepared to turn herself into an untouchable Flame Lance and flee.

But in the next instant, ice smothered the flames, and a cool voice sounded behind her:

"It's me."

Is that... Miss Angelica?

Helene matched the voice to her memory and stopped struggling. Only then did she realize she was in a vast, shadowy space. Countless web-like passages crisscrossed around her, connecting points of light large and small and stretching into infinity.

The strange sight made her dizzy. Afraid to examine it more closely with Spirit Vision, she could not help trembling.

"This is the Mirror World. Don't move around. You might fall into some corner where no one can find you."

Seeing Helene struggle, then stare blankly, then begin shifting uneasily under her arm, Angel warned her.

Demonesses who had mastered Mirror Magic could travel freely through Mirror Tunnels, but other Beyonders pulled inside were confined to small areas behind the mirror surfaces. If they fell into a passage, they might follow a route to somewhere dangerous—the seabed, the Spirit World, or somewhere worse.

With Angel's help, Helene stayed close beside her. Starting from the mirror in the Red Haired Woman's captain's cabin, they headed into deep waters far from Oravi Island. At a hundred times their speed in the Physical World, they soon entered the boundless Sonia Sea and arrived beside a dim mirror surface.

Angel activated the mirror, checked the scene beyond it, then pushed Helene out of the Mirror World and stepped through after her. The sea breeze immediately stirred her pale-gold hair and light coat, revealing the low-cut, fitted jacket, white women's shirt, and tight black trousers beneath.

They landed on a